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Posted January 21, 2011 to photo album "Fight Like Channing Tatum (Online): A Short, Bloody History of Roman War Games"

As The Eagle’s battle scenes demonstrate, the Roman Army was one of history’s most effective war machines. Legions of gamers, both in board games and online, have tried to emulate them.

Slide 2: Managing Risk

The first 20th century war game with mass appeal was Risk. What Monopoly was to capitalism, Parker Brothers’ Risk was to Cold War geopolitics. Risk was created in 1957 not by a military strategist or a game designer but by a filmmaker. Albert Lamorisse is known to film lovers of all ages for his charming Oscar-winning short, The Red Balloon. One year after making that children’s classic he created the game, originally titled The Conquest of the World. In Risk, players roll dice, move tokens representing armies and collect cards as they try to militarily dominate six continents of the world. Around the same time as Risk’s publication was the founding of Avalon Hill, a Maryland-based company specializing in more-detailed games based on actual historical incidents. Beginning with Tactics but moving into games like Stalingrad, Panzer Blitz and Waterloo, Avalon Hill brought historical research to the gaming world, creating a whole subculture of weekend warriors who’d play games lasting days, weeks, even months.

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